Page 482 - Top MMA News and Mixed Martial Arts Headlines

Do you have a hot MMA story or news item that you have found and would like to share?
Then read our guidelines then post it to our MMA News Share Forum to have it display here for the community to read on this page.

The betting lines for the UFC 147 main card are out, and there are some fairly large differences from site to site. The main event fight rematch between Wanderlei Silva and Rich Franklin has different lines at almost every major site, and you can get Silva anywhere from +125 to +155, which is a bit unusual. Here's a rundown of the best lines you'll get from any major site, courtesy of BestFightOdds:

Russian fighter Alexander Sarnavskiy has signed a multi-fight deal with Bellator, officials today announced.
As part of the announcement, officials dubbed him the No. 1 seed for the upcoming season-seven lightweight tournament, which is expected to kick off in September.
Sarnavskiy, who trains with some current Bellator fighters at RusFighters Sport Club, enters the organization with a perfect 20-0 record and 17 stoppage wins.
If victorious in the season-seven tourney, which will include eight fighters and run 12 weeks, Sarnavskiy would get a guaranteed title shot.
"Alexander Shlemenko has put a high standard of Russian dominance in Bellator by winning two middleweight tournaments," Sarnavskiy stated. "Now my teammate Andrey Koreshkov fights for Bellator as well, and he recently won two fights by spectacular KOs. Vitaly Minakov also just signed with Bellator, and I expect him to become Bellator's next heavyweight champion.
"I want to follow in the footsteps of those men, and make Bellator proud."

Ricardo Funch (8-3 MMA, 0-3 UFC) has felt the pressure before. But this time, it's greater than ever.
Funch, in his second stint with the UFC, still is in search of his first win with the promotion. Friday, he meets Dan Miller (13-6 MMA, 5-5 UFC) at UFC on FX 4 and knows what is at stake.
"This is the fight of my life and it's the only thing I'm thinking about," Funch recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
Funch got a second chance with the UFC when he took a short-notice fight against Mike Pyle in his native Brazil this past January at UFC 142. But the Massachusetts-based welterweight didn't find any more success in Brazil than he had in his UFC fights in the States and Canada. Pyle stopped him in just 82 seconds.
Funch realizes that because he helped the UFC out when Paulo Thiago dropped out of the fight against Pyle, he has one more shot Friday in Miller's home state of New Jersey.

The rematch more than 13 years in the making has to wait a little longer, but when Wanderlei Silva heard the news his worries were bigger than that.
Silva, who was booked to face Brazilian rival Vitor Belfort in the main event of UFC 147 this Saturday, was simply concerned that he might not be able to stay on the card.
"I was scared because I didn't know if I'd have another opponent," Silva on Tuesday told MMAjunkie.com. "It was bad for me. I had trained hard, and I was ready for the fight."

UFC 147 takes place in Werdum's native Brazil. When the two tangle at Estadio Jornalista Felipe Drumond (also known as "Mineirinho"), a 25,000-seat arena in Belo Horizonte, Russow said he'll go into cruise control.
"Honestly, (fighting in hostile territory) really doesn't bother me," he said today. "I'm the underdog and glad all the pressure is on him. It doesn't bother me what the fans are doing. I really don't even hear my coaches after the ref says go, so that's not going to bother me at all."

Good news "Pitbull" fans: Brazilian wrecking ball Thiago Alves' surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle was a success and is targeting a late 2012 return to the Octagon.
After suffering the injury in training, which forced him to withdraw from his scheduled UFC 149 bout against fellow stand-up specialist Siyar Bahadurzada in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Alves went under the knife to resolve the issue and updated everyone via his official Twitter account of his current health status:

"Great news, just talked to my doctor and my (physical therapist). They both told me I'll be back fighting again by December. I can't wait!"

"According to Jose Aldo's manager and trainer, Andre Pederneiras of Nova Uniao, they're expecting him to be back in October. No surgery needed for that left leg, just some physical therapy, and they're very hopeful he'll be back in October. His opponent, whenever he is ready, will be Erik Koch."

So it should come as no surprise that Ebersole is already preparing for his next fight after this Friday's bout with T.J. Waldburger by calling out the ultra-popular Diaz brothers:
"I wouldn’t mind beating up a Diaz, maybe Nate. Jim Miller’s a talented dude. I want to start up there. I don’t care if they’re coming off a win or coming off a loss, I just want to prove that I belong in that top ten, top 15."
When asked by Ariel Helwani, host of The MMA Hour, why he wanted to fight a Diaz brother, Ebersole responded:
"They’ve kind of got punk attitudes."

People keep asking Wanderlei Silva how many more fights he has left in him. As if he knows. As if his body and his career are like a cell phone battery, buzzing every so often to let him know he’s down to the final 20 percent, then the final ten.
"I feel good," he told MMA Fighting in a phone interview. "I train good. I go with the young guys I have here. I feel very good, but I train for one fight at a time. For how long? I don’t know, but the performance is going to tell. That will show whether I can still fight or not."
Maybe it’s fitting that he should be facing Franklin, who keeps giving the same answer to the same question. It’s not as if a win will vault either into immediate title contention. It’s also not as it either of them needs another title in order to consider his career a success. They could both quit whenever they want to and walk away with their heads held high. But then, neither of them wants to. They’re still having too much fun.

Unofficially, Rich Franklin sees his UFC 147 main event matchup with Wanderlei Silva as his return to the middleweight division, even though the duo will only have to step on the scale and hit 190 pounds in order to make their fight official. The catch weight stipulation was a concession to Franklin taking the bout on short notice and having to travel from Singapore to the US to Brazil in the interim.
Just days from the fight, Franklin believes he could have made 185 pounds, and when he does the next time, it will be his first time at the weight since April 2008. After moving to light-heavyweight, Franklin has gone 3-3, though two of those fights are notably at 195-pound catch weights.
"I really don't have an opinion one way or another," he said. "I know originally, the UFC had the five weight classes and they were trying to avoid having so many champions that people would lose track of them, much like what happened with boxing. There are so many weight class champions that you can't name half of the belt-holders in the sport of boxing, and I think the UFC was somewhat trying to avoid that. With time, we've put in these smaller weight classes, so there are so many more weight classes that definitely, an argument could be made for a 195-pound weight class."

"There is so many guys out there right now to fight. I just need to get a good fight against somebody, top 10 or top 15. Now that B.J. (Penn) is back, that would be fun to settle that finally, but, I don't think he wants a piece of me so he is going after young guys."

When asked if he thought "Baby J" was "ducking" him, Fitch simply stated:

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was supposed to have his day in court on Tuesday for sentences related to DWI charges. The sentencing has been pushed back to July 3, according to Stephen Reilly on PressConnects.com.

"The thing I like about Chael, he's nutty as hell, I mean half the shit the guy says is like what, right? But, he backs it up. When the guy goes in there and fights man he fights. I know this, most guys go in and they're scared when they fight Anderson. They're intimidated. He's got like that (Mike) Tyson aura. People are scared and afraid. Chael Sonnen is not afraid of Anderson Silva. He's not. And that makes it a completely different fight than anybody else he fights."

Because Vitor vs. Wanderlei isn't happening... maybe the Sarafian injury as well.
"With the change on the main card, fans who purchased tickets for the event will now officially have three (3) days to decide whether to seek a full refund."

Although an announced bout with Bibiano Fernandes (11-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was quickly scrapped, Roland Delorme (8-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) will remain on next month's UFC 149 card.
The bantamweight will take on Francisco Rivera (8-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC).
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the planned matchup with sources close to the event, though UFC officials haven't made a formal announcement.
UFC 149 takes place July 21 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In the pay-per-view headliner, Urijah Faber and Renan Barao fight for the interim bantamweight title.

As far as Alistair Overeem is concerned, he's going to fight soon after his current suspension ends.
The UFC heavyweight took to Twitter on Monday and promised fans he'll be in the cage before year's end.
"I'll be fighting again in December, and mark my words, I'll be back to get the belt sooner rather (than) later," he stated.
Overeem (36-11 MMA, 1-0 UFC), a former Strikeforce champion, most recently scored a TKO victory over Brock Lesnar in December at UFC 141. But prior to a scheduled May title fight with heavyweight champion Junior Dos Santos at UFC 146, he failed a surprise pre-fight drug test.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Michael Bisping was dealt a setback recently when he was forced to withdraw from his bout against Tim Boetsch at UFC 149, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on July 21, 2012, because of an injured knee.

"Yeah, left knee. Slightly torn meniscus. I had some loose bodies -- two rather large pieces of cartilage floating around inside. I had what they call, 'fraying of the knee' inside. It's general wear and tear. So they went in, repaired the meniscus, removed the loose bodies and cleaned up the knee, somewhat. That was last Wednesday. I'm still in a lot of pain, limping around a lot. But I'm hoping, within a few weeks, I'll be back in the gym, so I can fight ASAP."

He'd like that fight to be for the title, and he believes, if things go the way he thinks they will, that the man wearing the Middleweight Championship belt around his waist will be Chael Sonnen, the man who defeated Bisping by a narrow margin when the two squared off at UFC on Fox 2, in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 28, 2012:

"I wanna fight ASAP. Obviously, it depends on the knee and how well it goes. But I'm gonna do everything in my power to ensure that I can train, ASAP, as I said. I'd love to fight on the first of September card. That may be too quick. I know Hector Lombard's now fighting Tim Boetsch. He's gonna replace me there. So they're busy. Chael Sonnen's fighting Anderson Silva. I think Chael wins that fight. At least I think. The first fight is gonna give him a lot of confidence. The way he fought, handily for four and a half rounds. I think he's gonna go in there with a lot of confidence and do the same thing, but not get submitted in the last round. After that, Chael's gonna need someone to challenge him, and I mean, who is there? Vitor Belfort's injured. I mean, who are the challengers? I was fighting Chael for the number one contender. Just because I narrowly lost that fight doesn't mean I go to the back of the pile. So I'm hoping to fight for the title. Hopefully, I'll get the knee correct, and then they're gonna need a challenger. I'm here, ready and waiting."